


Beach "Date" No. 1

by TelekineticIssue



Series: LoK Tumblr Requests [6]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/F, Minor panic attack, i don't wanna tag em all but team avatar is in the bg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:47:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27141301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TelekineticIssue/pseuds/TelekineticIssue
Summary: A short snippet of a day at the beach. Lin gets dunked on and then has a bit of a bad time.
Relationships: Lin Beifong/Kya II
Series: LoK Tumblr Requests [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1972630
Comments: 2
Kudos: 80





	Beach "Date" No. 1

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by anonymous.  
> This was supposed to be completely fluff but my traitorous hands turned it into something else. I want to come back to the idea of a beach date with an actual fluffy outcome instead of whatever this is eventually.

The scent of the sunscreen had Lin wrinkling her nose as she rubbed it into her arms; Kya, a few feet away out of the shade of the comically large umbrella Lin had dug out of some Spirits-forsaken closet somewhere, rolled her eyes.

“If you don’t like it, why do you insist on wearing it?”

“I burn easily,” Lin pouted.

“You're sitting in the shade!” Korra ran by with a ball under her arm, Naga in hot pursuit. Lin frowned, and Kya shuffled closer to press a kiss to her cheek.

“Bleh, sunscreen.”

“Serves you right.”

Kya retaliated by grabbing the bottle and dabbing a glob of it on Lin’s nose. Lin fixed her with what should have been an intimidating look, but the effect was rather ruined by her reading glasses and the sunscreen smeared across her face. Kya smiled and kissed her again, this time on the lips, and her expression softened significantly.

“Like a grumpy little kitten.”

Lin made an exasperated sound much like the cat she’d been compared to. “I am not. And hey, careful with that around here.”

“Lin, no one noticed,” Kya said, “You’re going to have to get used to me kissing you publicly, you know. I’m not going to stop.”

“I know, I will,” Lin muttered, “I’m just worried about something happening to you because of it.”

“It’ll be okay, Lin. I promise.” She squeezed one of Lin’s hands, and the other woman hummed a single note of acknowledgement. “I’m going to go get in the water. Want to join me?” Kya got to her feet with a popping of joints and extended a hand to Lin.

“Um.” Lin eyed the waves crawling up the beach, not wanting to let on the twist of worry in her gut at the sight. “Maybe in a little while?”

“Fair enough.”

Lin pretended to go back to her newspaper, though she instead watched over the edge as Kya sent a small ball of water soaring through the air to land directly on Korra’s head. The younger woman sent a wave back at Kya. The two traded weak waterbending attacks for a few moments before Bolin jumped between them, and with twin grins Lin could practically see from her spot up the beach, Kya and Korra swept him up on a waterspout and deposited him gently back on the shore.

“Hey!” he yelped, charging back into the water to splash the both of them. Tenzin’s kids joined in, with Meelo jumping out of the water to cling to Kya like a lemur and effectively cut off any bending she might possibly return with. Mako gently wrestled him off and tossed him upward, giving him plenty of time to airbend himself to a safe landing. Lin had seen enough at this point, actually returning to the paper, though she kept an ear out in case someone called for her.

The fact that things had gone quiet as they could be at a beach should have tipped her off, but Lin was too deeply engrossed in the sports section of the paper to truly take notice of anything unless it either yelled at her or touched her.

Two things happened very quickly:

The first was that she realized two figures were standing on either side of her.

The second was a torrent of water that crashed over her, after which a chorus of delighted cackling started up from the two benders around her. Lin whipped her glasses off her face and leapt up, still clutching a now-soggy newspaper in one hand as she chased Korra and Kya down the beach and into the waves. A well-timed grab put Kya in her grasp, and she crowed in victory when the waterbender raised her hands in defeat. She was so caught up in the moment that she didn’t realize she’d stepped so deep into the water until the tide threw her off balance and soaked her shirt. She froze, a strangled sound in her throat as the sand shifted under her feet, confusing her seismic sense. Panic blurred her vision until it seemed like she was looking through a fishbowl at her surroundings. She felt a splash of water hit her from behind, likely one of the older kids, though she didn’t—couldn’t—respond.

“Oh, fuck, I forgot,” Kya said, “Guys, cut it out! Give her a little space!” More gently, she added, “Lin, honey, focus.”

“What?” Lin’s head was swimming. Her knees gave out, but Kya’s arms were around her. What part of Lin’s brain was still functioning was briefly occupied by the way the sun shone off Kya’s skin, and the way the strands of hair that had worked loose from her bun stuck to her shoulders before even that, too, turned to all consuming terror at her sudden inability to do more than listen to Kya’s voice.

“Hey, Lin, I have you, but you gotta walk with me, love. Come on back this way.”

Lin was shaking when she and Kya finally dropped to their knees out of reach of the waves, and Kya snapped at Korra to bend what water she could out of Lin’s clothing and hair. Kya set Lin’s hands into the sand and held them there until she could sense Lin was coming back to herself. She worked the tattered remains of the newspaper out of Lin’s hand when the death grip she held on it finally relaxed. Lin took a long, slow breath when her mind finally cleared and she could once again attune herself to the thrum of the earth beneath her.

“Lin? Are you with me?”

“Yes,” Lin breathed, “I’m sorry.”

“Dear, you don’t have to apologize.” Kya cupped her left cheek in her hand. “I forgot about the ocean thing. It’s my fault.”

“No, don’t worry.”

“You okay, Chief?” Korra’s eyebrows were pressed together in worry, and Lin became aware of all the kids standing behind Kya with concern echoed in all their faces.

“I’m all right now. I don’t...I can’t sense anything when the sand moves in the water. I’ve always had this problem.”

“Sorry, Chief,” Korra said sheepishly. The rest of them stood awkwardly until Lin waved a hand at them.

“It wasn’t your fault. Get back to goofing around. I didn’t agree to come so you could all gawk at me.”

It didn’t take long for them to return to their antics, and it was some minutes later that Lin felt human enough again to stand and wobble back to her post on her towel. Kya, emboldened by the knowledge that Lin wouldn’t push her away right now, nudged her over until they shared the seat.

“You have a towel over there.” Lin mourned the loss of her newspaper, but Kya’s hand in hers was an acceptable substitute. She was also significantly nicer to look at, if she had to tell the truth.

“That one doesn’t have my incredibly beautiful girlfriend on it,” Kya teased. Lin bit her lip and shut her eyes. There. Now she couldn’t look at anything that would make her mood shift even more. She’d had enough emotional whiplash in the past half hour; no need to add more fuel to that particular fire.

“Is that what I am?” she said instead, which she knew was accompanied by a blush.

“Spirits, Lin, you might insist on wearing the most boring clothing on the face of the earth, but I’ve seen underneath.”

_”Um,”_ Lin said, “Not that anyone else needs to know that.”

“Fine, fine.” Kya rested her head against Lin’s shoulder. “I love you.”

Lin opened her eyes, a soft smile flitting across her face. She squeezed Kya’s hand in her own.

“I love you, too.”


End file.
